Rohail Rizvi- Entrepreneur in the Making

Many people make their entire living off of blog revenue such as Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net. Although, I must admit, it is extremely difficult to make a significant amount off of blogs. I, myself have avoided this concept of making money especially on this website as I want it to have a clean look.

However, I do have several other blogs that I am trying this concept with, my main one of which is www.mesosource.blogspot.com. I don’t know how well it is going to work with my other websites so I am going to try and experiment with this one. My reveneue really depends on how much traffic I get to www.mesosource.blogspot.com and how much interest people have in what the website has to offer in terms of ads and the click-through ratio.

Why Follow the Herd?

If one just looks at the social hierarchy present in our society it becomes apparent as to what works and what doesn’t in terms of being successful. Of course, success is an ambigious term and it’s definition is reliant on the individual defining it. Nevertheless, one must realize that 1% of the population in the United States is possesses more wealth than the other 99% combined. That statistic is startling. So why would you ever think of doing exactly what that 99% of the population is doing if you want to get to where the wealthier minority is?

Which is riskier? Having a job or owning a business?

It is really about being extraordinary and doing all you can to avoid the ordinary. We have been fed this concept where one has to go to school, get good grades, get into an Ivy League school, and only then will one be successful. One’s entire success depends on their grades in this system and ultimately leads to one source of survival-a job-which, might I add, is much more risky than owning a business where one has unlimited streams of income. If you lose one customer, you still have 999 customers that you are still receiving revenue from. Whereas, if you have a job, and you get laid off you have nowhere else to go for the time being.

The Answer

The overwhelming answer in my mind is entrepreneurship. And even more than that is to do what you love. So if you love helping people get better-then go ahead be a doctor. Society will reward you for it. Still, if you see a job as being a burden and not just because you are lazy, then why not do something you are passionate about? Be innovative. See entrepreneurship as doing something you love and helping people at the same time. The way you do this is by creating value. If you create a product or service then customers will find the value of that product or service more valuable than the money they are handing over to have it. Similarly, you create value when you gain revenue for the product or service you provide. One of the shining points about entrepreneurship is that it can really help improve the human condition. If you find someway that can improve life for other people, you can potentially capitalize on it. That, in essence, is what capitalism is all about.

So in all, do what you love and create something with people in mind. If you do, society will reward you for it -and you won’t have to worry about losing your job.

Some people might think six months is an awful long time to make a sale on ebay, but it took a lot of time and effort to find the right product to sell. I just made my first sale on eBay yesterday with a profit of $20 and I look to do the same from now on until I can bring in a continuous stream of income. The entire process was a long one filled with finding a genuine supplier (not a middleman), setting up a business registration with the state, setting up a resale certificate, getting a credit card, setting up a business checking account, setting up a merchant account, and the hardest one of them all: finding that perfect product to sell at a decent margin. Who knew there would be so many steps involved. Late nights staring at the monitor at 3am repeatedly probably wasn’t so good for me, but at least now I don’t have to rely on a JOB for the summer.

As for the spyware removal service, I’m picking up the flyers from Staples today. Hopefully I can get a return on the $20 it cost me to get copies made.

Young Wealth Weekly recently tapped me on the shoulder and said they would like me to write for their ezine. Myself, already being a subscriber was thrilled at the offer and happily accepted. It is a terrific ezine might I add, otherwise I would not have previously been a subscriber. I highly suggest to all you other young entrepreneurs out there to check it out: www.youngwealthweekly.com. It goes out every week and covers everything from management and marketing to Internet businesses to finance to personal development. So be on the look out for future articles by me and all the others at the YWW team. This ezine is going to be huge, make no doubt about it.

I’m in the preliminary steps of getting my spyware removal business off the ground. It shouldn’t take too long. I’ve got the flyer done, I just need to run to Staples to get copies of it made. Initially, I’ll be doing all the flyering myself but as time goes on I’ll hire people to do that depending on how profitable this gets. Here’s the flyer, let me know what you think:

That’s right. I walked right into the boss’s office and told him I’m resigning. Well it didn’t quite go like that. I told him I wouldn’t be able to work anymore and he says fine. Then I ask for resignation papers to sign so I can make it official and all of a sudden he starts cursing at me saying he doesn’t have resignation papers. I tell him I’m not trying to make him upset, I just want to make things official. He remains the crybaby that he is and puts on his headset claiming he “has to take a call.” Hilarious. Truth is, I didn’t like the ethics of the company. I found out that they were featured on NBC 10 investigators and subsequently quit as I didn’t like the idea that I might be working for a company that steals people’s money. In fact they have a picture of my former boss online at the NBC website where a former client comes in to get his money back and is subsequently faced with my former boss calling in the cops claiming the client was trying to steal his money. What scum.

On the other hand, I now have much more time to work on my ventures. The first thing I want to do is hold a couple entrepreneurial experiments, if you will. Now the first one is more of an attempt at an actual business. I am starting a spyware removal service and will first try to get clients in my neighborhood and if things go well I will expand to other nearby neighborhoods. I think a fair share of people with computers have problems with spyware and have no clue how to get it out. Further, considering how annoying spyware is, I’m pretty sure people are willing to fork over some dollars to get rid of the problem.

Now my second experiment some of you are going to laugh at. Quite simply, I’ll be attempting to pick up women. Yes, now you may think that I’m doing this for my own benefit (somewhat true), but I think doing this could help my communication skills and confidence in an enormous way. There are so many tricks and trades to communication when it comes to approaching women and much of it (not all of it) can be applied to communications I may have in the business world some day. Concepts like mirroring and social proof are all part of communication and I want to master this. And who knows I might even get a few numbers (or more) in the process. Stay tuned, this blog is about to get a little more interesting.

I’ve been subscribing to Josiah Mackenzie’s new Young Wealth Weekly newsletter for a few weeks now and I must say I am very impressed with the quality of the content and the revolutionary move it is taking to finally bring youth and wealth together in a way to really make it accessible to young entrepreneurs all around world. I highly recommend to those of you who want to stay in the know and take advantage of the innovative tips and insights it gives as to entrepreneurship to sign up for Young Wealth Weekly at www.youngwealthweekly.com. It’s absolutely free and is sent out every Thursday, so make sure you check it out.

That’s the title of the book I’m currently reading and it’s written by Wil Schroter (Go Big or Go Home by Wil Schroter). I was actually given a free copy by Wil so I can give him some feedback on it. I’m actually in the middle of it right now and I must say it’s a great read. If you’ve ever wondered how companies like Google and MySpace have made it so big in such a short amount of time, this is the book to read. It provides great insight as to how it is the perfect time for a start up if you position yourself right and grow appropriately with the correct business model. It’s all about scalability and profitability accompanied with growth. I highly recommend his work as even if you don’t plan to start anything it still lets you in on what makes companies like Google so successful in such a short period of time.

In other news, I cashed in all my change from my change jar from the previous school year and landed a fresh $20 bill straight from the bank. Of course, that $20 is going straight to the oil companies as I fill up my gas guzzling V6 at $3 a gallon. Still worth it, I think (both the saving up change and the car). I really do suggest keeping a change jar as it really does add up. No way was I expecting $20, more like 9 or 10. Try dumping change you have in your pockets at any given moment into your change jar, and it should really add up.

Finally, I want to mention that I do want to make this an interactive blog. I appreciate all the early support I’ve been getting from readers all over the world and I certainly do appreciate any comments you leave as I would love to hear what you think about my journey to financial freedom. Feel free to make suggestions as to what you want to hear more of in my posts and what not. Let me know and keep those comments comin’.

Sometimes we fear things and we don’t even know it. Whether it’s running for class president, starting a new club at college, or starting a new business, certain things- whether it be the fear of failure or uncertainty in our abilities- things hold us back. But I’ve learned that the best thing one can do is to just take the leap. I know it sounds ambiguous, but that’s all there really is to it. If you believe you can be a success at something, you just have to go for it. Often times our brains are hard wired to think negatively, and so it is important to overcome this automatic connection by continually reinforcing positive thinking patterns. And by doing this it makes it easier to take the leap, which is exactly what I am doing.
Now the summer is officially here and I’m ready to take bigger leaps this time. I have a full time job now at a consulting company, which, as much as you may disagree with having “entrepreneur” and “job” in the same sentence, is proving to be a very valuable experience for me. I’m talking with vice presidents from JPMorgan, SEO specialists, consultants, and a wide range of professionals pulling in six-figure salaries everyday. I am confident that my time at the company will prove invaluable. Many of the people who I work with are highly experienced in the business world with people boasting PhD’s in business from presitigious schools such as Columbia. I’m proving myself valuable at the company and look to create as many contacts as possible.

Now most college kids working at my job might be working there to save up for a down payment on a car or such. Myself- I’m saving this money to fund my next big project. It’s a risk, I know, but it’s one I’m going to take because I truly believe this project has huge potential to become something big. I think it solves a huge problem and has a large enough audience to be a success. So stay tuned, you’ll want to.

For me, motivation has always been something primarily internal. Some receive motivation from observation of worldly things, or watching events like someone complete a difficult task through a disability. These are all valid sources of motivation. But I think the greatest source of motivation is the one that comes from within. Eliot Wasmund recently did a piece on Kobe Bryant and includes part of his monologue. Kobe Bryant is certainly one of those individuals that derive their motivation from within. It is the same determination and motivation that he feels that keeps him playing phenomenal basketball, that is the same felt by magician David Blaine and Evil Knieval, and that felt by entrepreneurs around the world. You can find Eliot’s post here: http://www.eliotwasmund.com/archives/85

This is not to say one can not find motivation in things such as these: